If peer-to-peer lenders lack anything, it is not ambition

Samir Desai, one of the founders of the Funding Circle, said at scale, these are incredibly profitable businessesJenny Goodall/Daily Mail/Rex/Shutterstock

You cannot accuse alternative lenders of lacking ambition. Samir Desai, co-founder and chief executive of Funding Circle, Britain’s largest peer-to-peer lender, says that his business, which has arranged $2.7 billion of loans to small companies, could be lending at least $100 billion within a decade.

Peter Behrens, co-founder of Ratesetter, one of Funding Circle’s main rivals, believes that his platform could double its annual loans within the next two years to £4 billion. He is “ unbelievably confident that we can grow”.

Unbelievable is one word that sceptics, too, might choose. To put these figures into context, peer-to-peer lending in US dollars, sterling and euros in the past year was worth £13.8 billion, while £60 billion has been lent since the first platform went live…